Make It Stop
by JustWhelmed
Summary: Who knew that such a loyal example of friendship could make even a vampire cry? Two-shot.


**A/N: Hey-o! Just going to say that Wally and Dick can either be considered best friends or a romantic pairing in this, depending on your preference. Or more like pre-slash, for those shippers out there. However, this wasn't intended to be romance.**

**A response to a vote in the Supernatural option for the poll on my profile (go vote if you have the chance! It'll be controlling what I write for a while yet).**

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><p>He had trusted her. He had thought that she had trusted him. She must have, in hindsight, for her to give him access to the one thing that ruled her entire life, that governed who she was and who she could be.<p>

But he had never wanted it.

He should have just stayed home; but what home had there been for him to go to? A burrow dug in one of the many narrow, dirty, filthy with feces alleyways draped in shadows. He didn't belong to a home. He didn't even belong to a country. He had once heard from his uncle that his mother had been from Romania, but how justifiable was that information when she was supposed to be a gypsy?

He had made a friend. The temptation to keep that friend was more than enough to have him scampering around the city with her. The suspicion at her activity restricted for the night did not filter into his mind. The realisation that she knew every crook, every corner for what it was, prostitutes or stories of unfortunate men or how the son of the daughter of the Duke of Wales entered that one street over there and never returned - it never dawned upon him that there could be more.

A creature of the night. How fitting, really, when he looked back on it. But he didn't want to look back on it.

Had he loved her? He didn't know. He was young. Thirteen years of age and foolish and confusing adventure with marriage. Thirteen years of age and willing to experiment and she had leaned in for a kiss and he had his own hormones to deal with and his mind was racing and his heart was thumping with adrenaline and he could do nothing but stand there-

She never kissed him, either. At least, not on his lips.

And when he started to go limp, when his mind was fuzzy with a light headed and dizzy feeling that he could only accredit to _something was wrong, _he could not hold himself with his shaky and weak limbs. She caught him. She laid him gently. And he saw her, he saw her lean forward and tell him to drink, and he remembered drinking, and he remembered as the iron taste turned sweet mid-drink as if his taste buds had momentarily forgotten that they were supposed to hate it.

He remembered the wet pavement most of all. Not her eyes. Her eyes were fuzzy images with fuzzy eyes. But the wet, cold, hard London pavement he remembered because that was where he had started and lived his life - and that was where, inevitably, he had died.

When he awoke, he didn't jerk. He didn't flinch. His eyes didn't even snap open. He only cracked his lids apart as he had done countless times before and stared blankly at the ceiling of his room.

He just wanted for it to be over.

One hundred years. Over. Two hundred years. What year was he even born? He couldn't remember - he could only remember what year he was turned.

1889.

And Robin, famous Boy Wonder, hated that year with a passion.

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><p>Robin was an odd one out. Not because of his being Robin, or him being a broke 'circus brat' adopted by one of the richest men in the country. He was an odd one out because he was a vampire who didn't hunt humans.<p>

Wow, he was really starting to feel the Twilight.

But no, Robin didn't hunt animals, either. Their blood always tasted strange and foreign, like someone from traditional China eating a large American fast food burger for the first time and puking afterwards. Not because it tasted bad, but because it was so strange in their system that their system couldn't handle the new ingredients.

If he said that he didn't hunt humans to another vampire, they would assume that he was just picky about his bloody types. Different blood types had entirely different flavours, after all (personally, Robin preferred O+ or O- because it was like they were a seasoned dish of everything else - then again, people of those types could positively receive other types mixed into their system as well). No, it wasn't that. He drank human blood, of course, but he didn't hunt them.

He was just an absolute failure of a vampire and stole the blood bags from nearby hospitals. Super creative.

Still, Robin always tried to take as few as possible. People needed those blood bags. What if he saved someone from getting stabbed and delivered them to the hospital, only for a staff member to tell him that there was no blood of that type left? That would be the day that Robin promptly shot himself in the head. Not that it would do anything.

He would know - he had tried.

But in the end, Robin had no choice. He had to take large amounts at a time because he didn't know when he would be able to break in and steal more again. It was something that police had not found evidence of and were eternally stumped; Robin had no intention of giving them a place to start by increasing the frequency of his hits and making a careless mistake.

Which is why the new mission _really _sucked. And it didn't suck blood (Robin would have been able to tell if Batman were a vampire, after all).

"He wants us to find out why all the blood bags are going missing? Easy. There's another crazy psychopath on the loose," Wally said the moment the Dark Knight disappeared in a flash of light.

"I'm more confused on why he's bothering. Only one of the cases were in Gotham, right? And that was supposed to be a super long time ago," piped in Artemis as she leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Yes, but it is apparently the first of the attacks. Perhaps he believes Gotham is a key factor in this person's intentions," Kaldur suggested helpfully.

"It was years ago. Whatever evidence there was, there's none left," Wally mumbled through bites of his rapidly disappearing sandwich. Artemis sent him a scolding look for his eating habits, but he didn't spare her a glance, focused as he was on smearing mayonnaise onto another bread slice. "Why now, anyway?"

"Isn't it becoming more frequent?" M'gann asked worriedly. "I saw it on the news the other day. The last few have been centered around Central City."

Wally scowled at that and bit into his sandwich frustratingly. "Again, why now? Why not before? There's some crazy dude stealing blood bags and there hasn't been a single attack having to do with drowning the city in blood. Don't you think that's a _bit _suspicious?"

"Maybe he was occupied with other cases and figured that the villain would show their face sooner or later," said Kaldur.

"Well, they haven't," Wally grumbled.

"What if the villain has no intentions to harm people?" M'gann asked hopefully.

Artemis scoffed. "Are you kidding? Then why are they stealing so much blood? They're probably doing creepy human experiments in some basement right under our noses."

M'gann shuddered at that. Robin shuddered more.

As if Robin's brief sign of unnerved emotion prompted an interrogation, Kaldur turned to him. "What is on your mind, friend? Do you have any clues as to why this person has been stealing blood?"

"Yeah, any known blood-sucking sociopaths of Gotham City, by any chance?" Wally grumbled again through his sandwich. Robin tensed, but no one seemed to give Wally's statement much attention. He relaxed.

"No," he shook his head. "I would have figured it out by now. I was actually on this case before - maybe the villain lives in Central."

Wally gulped hard and glared as he tried to swallow quick enough to speak. "Why Central?" he pouted.

"Well, it could be that the villain is"-Robin wanted to wince at his own wording-"getting sloppy. The cities were randomised at first, now they're just centred in Central."

It would be beneficial for Wally if he never found out that was only because Robin was having more sleepovers with his best friend.

Wally whined. "That doesn't mean they're a citizen!" he protested, but Artemis shot him another look.

"You know, Boy Wonder is right. I say we check out the recent hits," she suggested.

Robin instantly began analysing the nights of occurrence. _Had _he left any indication behind? He couldn't have. But he had been so used to getting away with everything for so _long _because regular humans couldn't explain them and gave up. His team only had a single human. If they could believe in half Kryptonian clones, they could believe in the supernatural.

The acrobat took a deep breath to still his nerves, but it did nothing. He didn't even need to breathe. He only kept doing it, even in private, because it made him feel _alive. _

Hell, Robin really didn't know how nerves were even functioning. Were they? He couldn't say that he had taken an examination recently. Maybe cells weren't living after all. Or maybe they died, too, and functioned, but couldn't reproduce, making them dead by scientific standards. That would be an interesting thought to introduce to Wally. It made Robin wonder, though, if drinking too much pure water would kill him like it did to living organisms. Cells might not be able to die if they were already dead, but they could probably still explode with too much water.

Maybe the reason vampires got weak and died when they didn't drink blood was because they were dehydrated? Robin didn't know - he had never tried it out.

He was thinking too much.

"-ob? Boy Wonderful, you there?" Wally's voice broke Robin out of his thoughts, and he blinked behind his mask as Artemis snorted.

"Boy Wonderful? Really?" she laughed, but Robin ignored her, too focused on how he would respond.

"Yeah, totally," he said with a roll of his eyes, before he remembered that his teammates couldn't see his eyes and instead flicked his wrist dismissively. "Just thinking through what I researched about this before, seeing if there could be any evidence I overlooked."

"What, is your head a flash drive?" Wally snickered, before pausing and widening his eyes. "Actually, don't answer that, I don't want to know."

Robin cackled. "No, my brain is perfectly wireless," he winked, and Artemis face palmed at the pun.

"Oh, that's good, you won't need to use crappy hotel internet ever again," Wally commented.

"The benefits of being a Bat," remarked Robin.

"Let us get some rest, team," Kaldur suddenly interrupted from his place at the foot of the hallway. "I believe we should wake up early in the morning to get started on our investigation."

"Yeah, hear that, SB?" Wally said, and his attentioned focused on where Superboy was staring intently at the bank television screen. "You'll have to get back to your riveting tale of noise later."

Superboy didn't answer. Artemis scoffed. "What time?" she called back to Kaldur, who had started walking down the hallway.

"I believe 10:00AM will be best. I am going to sleep here for the night, as it is already the morning hours. Will you be staying, Artemis?"

The blonde hummed in thought for a moment before shrugging. "I don't really want to walk around in the cold right now and there's a bed nearby, so I guess I'll crash here, too."

"Wally?" Kaldur asked, but Wally waved him off.

"Super speed, I'll be home in seconds," he said as he dumped his dishes in the sink. Kaldur turned to Robin, but Robin beat him to it before he could open his mouth.

"I'm going home," he said. Kaldur frowned.

"Are you sure?" he asked, concerned. "Is your home quite far?"

"Nope," Robin replied easily. "I patrol Gotham at night all the time, maybe I can give Batman a hand on my way back." No use saying that there was a zeta tube literally connected beneath his 'house'.

The leader nodded. "I will see you in a few hours, then," he said as he walked away. "Goodnight."

"Night!" the trio called back. Artemis jumped down from where she had eventually sat down on top of the kitchen counter.

"Night, you guys," she said as she walked after where Kaldur had disappeared, likely back to her own room. She covered her mouth as she yawned in an attempt to stifle it.

"See ya, blondie," Wally replied.

"Night," Robin said again. He moved towards the zeta beams.

"Hey, you want to crash at my place?" Wally offered as he stood underneath the beam, Robin having stepped back for him to go first.

Robin paused, but he felt his skin prickle and he swallowed thickly, cursing the feeling of his mouth being so dry. "Nah, I'm feeling up for my bed tonight. Thanks, though."

Wally shrugged. "No problem. See you later." A moment later and he was gone.

Suddenly alone, Robin allowed his shoulders to droop and stood there for a second, taking in the silence. He ran a hand over his face as he coded the tube to the Batcave and stood underneath it, an awkward statue in a room that was almost never quiet. A second later and he was gone as well.

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><p>Dick woke up still half asleep and groggy. He had decided not to drink blood the night before, despite his thirst, because it was easier to fall asleep if he wasn't hyped up on getting hydrated (being thirsty and finally getting to drink was somewhat similar to a sugar high after a year long low calorie diet). However, his unusual amount of sleep (school as Dick Grayson, homework, nights as Robin, missions with Young Justice - who said he always got to sleep? Good thing he didn't actually need it, but it made him feel alive, so he did) combined with his thirst felt remarkably similar to crawling out of a grave (he hoped he would never have to do that).<p>

"Did you just wake up, Master Dick?" Alfred asked as the door cracked open, and Dick groaned as he turned to press his face into the pillow. "I do wish to inform you that it is 10:15AM. Master Bruce insisted that you slept, but I wasn't aware until Master Wallace called that you were to be at the mountain fifteen minutes ago."

It took all of two seconds for that to kick in.

"Crap!" Dick exclaimed, jumping up and thrashing his sheets back, tripping in his attempt to get out of his bed without the grace of an undead creature. Alfred only raised an eyebrow at his failed try and set a tray down on his dresser.

"Breakfast is here for you when you are ready. A breakfast you _will _eat, may I remind you," Alfred said, before smiling softly as Dick crashed against his room's bathroom door in order to get ready. He decided not to reprimand the young boy for cursing and silently closed the door behind him.

The Boy Wonder was at the mountain in five minutes - a truly wondrous feat for a teenaged boy who had just woken up and was required to be in a fully equipped uniform. Luckily, the vampiric speed helped.

There was one thing that he remembered (too late, unfortunately) when he finally walked into the kitchen to see Wally scarfing down a box of doughnuts, though.

Blood.

Seeing his best friend shove glazed personifications of carbs into his mouth never had never been and never would be appealing, but imagining the blood rushing through his veins behind that mouth, remembering just why his chest rose and fell-

Dick, as Robin, was once more consciously aware of his dry mouth. It was much drier than the night before. How long had it been since he had last drank? He had been trying to reserve the supply of bloody bags that he had deeply buried in the forest for as long as possible, so it had been long. Five days? A week? A human without water for that long would be dead. Robin felt colder, his head lighter, his limbs heavier.

Robin glanced down at his wrist, only to see the blue of his veins sticking out dramatically against his pale skin. Not in colour, but rather, in shape. Running his thumb over it, he could feel how it stuck out, how his wrist shook. There was no pulse, but his hunger and malnutrition was causing him to appear like an ill human.

"Rob!" Wally exclaimed happily as he zipped over and tackled his best friend to the ground. Robin felt the wind that he constantly forced into his lungs get knocked out, but he couldn't be bothered to try breathing again. He didn't have enough energy. When Robin didn't shove Wally off of him, the ginger looked down in concern. "Hey, man, you okay?"

"I think he'll be okay once you get your dead weight off of him," Artemis remarked from the couch.

Robin winced. Wally wasn't the one that was dead weight. The speedster frowned, but got up anyway and held out a hand for his friend. The hand was gratefully accepted, but the second that Robin was on his feet, Wally had both his cheeks in his hands and was examining him as closely as possible with a mask on the Boy Wonder's face.

"Did you even sleep?" Wally asked again, and Artemis looked over suspiciously from the couch.

"Actually," Robin snickered, "that's the problem. I got more sleep than usual." He grinned at Wally, and Wally grinned back. The ginger rubbed the brunette's shoulder.

"That isn't right, man. You went home at like, 3. Seriously," Wally laughed.

"Why do you think I'm late?" Robin commented honestly. "I overslept."

"There's a statement I never thought I'd hear," Artemis's voice drifted from the couch. Robin cackled and jumped over the back of the furniture, ignoring the way his head spun and he had to blink back stars.

"Maybe we should have early morning briefings more often," he mused. Artemis looked at him incredulously.

"Nooo way," she protested and shook her head. "I woke up with no idea where I was. Practically attacked a shadow."

"And she's even grumpier than usual," Wally complained from behind the couch, presumably the kitchen. "Apparently, even Arty needs beauty sleep."

"I'll show you who needs _beauty _sleep when I deform your face," the blonde deadpanned.

"Is everyone here?" a new voice called, and Artemis turned to see who it was. Robin didn't bother, though. It wasn't hard to mistaken Kaldur for anyone else.

"SB was poking around with a drill in the garage last I saw," Wally said.

"And who thought that was a good idea?" Robin asked.

"Baywatch," replied Artemis. Wally stuck his tongue out at her.

"So, Miss Martian is probably still sleeping," Kaldur filled in the blank. "Artemis, will you go wake her? I assume that she would not like a male to enter her room without her permission. I have heard that it is rude."

Artemis rolled her eyes, but got up anyway. "Yeah, sure," she said as she disappeared down the hallway leading to the team's rooms.

"Wow, Arty listened to _orders," _Wally gasped theatrically, sitting down where the blonde had formerly been with a plate occupied by four slices of pizza. He looked disapprovingly at his plate before getting up again, muttering 'definitely going to need more'.

"A teammate listening to their leader?" Robin said in similar fashion. "I never thought!"

"I will go retrieve Superboy," Kaldur said as he walked out of the room as well. Wally called out in acknowledgement as their leader disappeared.

"So," he said, sitting back down with a total of seven pizza slices on his plate. Satisfied, he took a bite out of one before finishing his sentence. "Did you find out anything about the weird thief? Any ideas?"

That was where Robin had to think.

How much did he want the team to know? Nothing, truthfully. But the mission wouldn't be over until they solved it. They had to get at least somewhere - there was no way that Batman would just drop the subject. Honestly, Robin would rather have the team hunting him than the detective that he _lived _with.

"Well," Robin said, already mentally smacking himself for what he was about to say, "I discontinue the idea that the person is using the blood for some sort of weird experiment."

Wally paused in the middle of his second pizza and pulled the slice away from his mouth. He looked at Robin, confused. "Why?" he asked.

Robin shrugged as nonchalantly as he could manage. "If it was an experiment, he'd either need different amounts of blood each time he stole, or he would steal all the same type. You know, controlled variables? Also, he's stealing at time intervals. A theft every month and a half, or around there. Judging by the amount stolen compared to the time, the thief is sustaining something, not testing it."

Wally took a millisecond to digest that, and then he finished his second pizza and shoved the third into his mouth as he happily smiled at the new information. Once swallowing his third slice, he turned around and engulfed Robin in a hug. "I knew we could count on you, man! You know freaking everything!"

More than Robin would like to, really.

"What do you think the thief is trying to sustain? Why? It's probably a living thing, since it's blood at all. Maybe it's injured. But that's weird," Wally rambled, gradually getting faster in speech. "Itwouldhavetobereallyinjuredtoneedthatmuchblood. Maybeit'sagiant! Maybewe'resecretlyantsandthegiantsareactuallyhumans. Butifit'sinjured,whywouldthethiefneedthesameamounteverymonth? Andwhydifferentbloodtypes?"

"Jeez, calm it, Kid Ramble!" Artemis exclaimed as she entered the room again, a messy haired M'gann in tow. The Martian was trying to pull a brush through her hair and failing miserably.

"Robin said the thief is trying to maintain something, not experiment!" Wally said excitedly. Artemis paused to consider that.

"It makes sense," she agreed. "I mean, the blood keeps getting stolen at regular intervals." Wally instantly pouted at the fact that the girl had drawn the same conclusion as his best friend before he did.

"We are back," Kaldur greeted as he walked back, at his side being Superboy. He looked around the room, taking in the state of his teammates. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yeah," Artemis nodded as M'gann squeaked as she finally yanked the brush through. The green girl winced and rubbed her head. "And we think that the thief is trying to maintain something that requires a lot of blood, rather than use the blood to do experiments that involves it."

Kaldur nodded. "An intellectual conclusion. We will see. Are we ready to leave for Central City now?"

"Wait!" M'gann protested as she turned around and ran back to her room. When she came back, she was in uniform and without her brush. Brushing her hair down, she nodded cheerily with a smile. "Yup!"

"Am I the tour guide?" Wally asked as Kaldur walked beneath the beam.

"If you'd like," he said, before he disappeared.

"Yeah!" Wally exclaimed. "Finally, we're going to my territory!"

"I guess that means we better keep an eye out. The stupid might be a native disease," Artemis commented. Robin cackled as Wally huffed and crossed his arms.

When they finally reached Central, Robin was almost shocked at the intensity of the sunlight. The street was alive with cars and people along the sidewalks with their dogs or idling outside of stores relaxing. There was a park just at the entrance of the alleyway crawling with children's laughter. "You only realise how far away Gotham is when you notice that it's raining there and it's like summer here," he said.

"But it's always raining in Gotham, so that's not new," Artemis said.

Good thing that he put on pounds of sunscreen. After all, that was why Robin wore so much clothing. Perhaps it would be easier to wear less, but it definitely would not be convenient. Sunlight would hurt him if it touched his skin directly. With so much sunscreen on that his face looked as white as snow and every other bit of available skin covered in clothing, Robin could probably go an hour or two.

Dick Grayson was another story, as it wasn't very smart to put sunscreen on his eyes or eyelids, but that was, of course, the real reason that he never wanted to go out in public. It was almost always overcast in Gotham, too, and if it wasn't then he could wear a hoodie during the short walks from the car to the inside of Gotham Academy each day.

"The first place we will go is named"-Kaldur paused to glance down at his hands, where Robin could see him unfold a packet of papers-"the Swedish Emergency Clinic." He started to walk out of the alley, but considering the amount of people occupying the park it opened into, Robin jumped to stop him.

"Wait, let's go out one by one and in different places," he said. "It'll be weird for a bunch of heroes to randomly walk out of a cramped alley." Robin knew for a fact that not all villains were dumb. Anyone who made the connection of superheroes occupying the general area of the same Out Of Order booths in multiple cities would surely screw the hero community over.

Kaldur thought about that for a moment before agreeing. "Very well, then. Meet outside the entrance of the clinic," he decided, pocketing the paper and continuing to walk out of the alley. "If we aren't all there by twenty minutes, I will come search for you."

The team members voiced their consent and Wally exclaimed a "Will do!" before Artemis frowned.

"Where's the clinic?" she asked.

"You can follow me," said Wally proudly. He turned to Robin. "The ninja can probably figure out where it is on his own.

Robin grinned as M'gann looked at Connor. "I can ask for directions," she piped in. "Want to go together?"

Connor agreed and they waited a few minutes before they walked out the opposite end of the alley from where Kaldur had disappeared. Wally and Artemis left around the same time without Artemis' consent, the ginger persuading her onto his back and zipping out. Robin was left alone.

He put a hand to his forehead and groaned, shutting his eyes. The lightheaded feeling in his head had only increased, and Robin could merely feel eternally grateful that he wasn't in Artemis' place. He would surely have puked out Alfred's undigested breakfast mid-run (it was such a shame that he always had to puke out the food and he couldn't really taste it, everyone always praised the man for his cooking and Robin had never had a home cooked meal before his taste buds lost appeal for anything but blood).

Already wishing for the day to be over, Robin grabbed his grappling hook and took to the roofs.

* * *

><p>"It's noon, I'm hungry, and we haven't found anything! They don't need all that blood, anyway. They literally have drawers and chests and cabinets and closets filled with blood - they can obviously replace it," Wally complained loudly as the team walked out of their second destination, City General Hospital.<p>

"It is not the blood itself, it is the purpose behind it," Kaldur corrected.

"I think Wally does have a point, though," M'gann spoke. "The hospitals on the list are all wealthy. They must have replaced the stolen bags really easily."

"But why would this person even bother? They need the blood and they're going out of their way to make sure no one gets hurt because of it," Artemis frowned. "It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe he isn't using the blood to create harm? What if the purpose is to save people?" Robin suggested.

"But why commit crimes for good?" M'gann asked, befuddled. "If the purpose is to save lives, wouldn't hospitals just share?"

Robin frowned. "The world doesn't work like that, M'gann." Everything would be so much simpler if it did.

"Wait, hold up," Artemis broke in abruptly, causing everyone's heads to turn towards her. "'He?'"

Robin froze.

"How do you know the thief's a he?" she asked suspiciously, scrunitisingly squinting her eyes at her teammate.

"I don't," Robin promptly defended. "But aren't humans usually referred to as 'he'? _Man_kind? Like how ships are always 'she'?"

Artemis didn't lessen her squint, though, and he could feel her eyes burning into him. Wally and M'gann both relaxed, but Kaldur seemed to momentarily teeter out of balance with his own opinion. "Is there something you are not telling us, Robin?" he chose to ask cautiously. Robin bristled.

"Why wouldn't I tell you guys something? There's nothing that I could get out of that," he declared.

"You could be hiding something," Connor said suddenly, the first thing he had said that afternoon. He was tense and his eyes had narrowed at Kaldur's questioning. "Everyone hides things."

"What makes you think I'm hiding things?" Robin glared.

"Woah, calm down, guys. He just messed up some stupid pronouns. I do it all the time. I even flirt with guys sometimes because I think they're girls, which is superembarrassingandIdidn'tmeantosaythat, but point is we all make mistakes, yada yada, and we should stop trying to antagonise our coworkers," Wally interrupted, physically pushing himself between his best friend and the Kryptonian.

"Are you in on it, too?" Connor accused.

Artemis didn't move, but her eyes did flicker between Connor and Wally, from Wally to Robin, and Robin back to Connor. Kaldur stepped up beside her to fix the trio with his displeased gaze, but it wasn't cynical like the blonde's. "What are we doing?" he demanded. "Are we so frustrated that we turn on our own friends? Is this what this team has become?"

Everyone went silent. M'gann looked at the floor and winced.

"We've had a traitor in the team before! Who says we can't have one again?" Connor exclaimed.

"Superboy, please," Kaldur countered. "Stand down."

"Connor," M'gann's quiet voice drifted from behind the alien as Connor puffed out his chest in front of their leader. His eyes switched to greet the Martian girl and he hesitated, before he forcefully relaxed and took a step back. Awkward silence descended on the circle once again.

"Wait!" someone outside of the group called, breaking the ice. "Wait, Young Justice!" Relieved, everyone turned to greet the voice, grateful for a place to put their eyes and mind that wasn't each other.

It was a young woman in a white lab coat, running in their direction with her arm raised and waving. A breathless grin grew on her face when she saw that she had garnered the group's attention and she began to slow down. She was walking when she finally got to them. "Hello!" she said, chipper and bright. "Are you Young Justice?"

Wally was quick to zip his way in front of her and hold out his hand. "Sure are! I'm Kid Flash, but call me KF," he winked.

Artemis promptly shoved him in the shoulder.

Laughing, the woman accepted his hand. "And I'm Maria." She gently let go of his hand and turned her body to the rest of the team. "I heard that you guys were investigating the thefts of the local blood supplies?"

Kaldur nodded and resumed his position as leader when Wally stepped back with a pout. "We are. Do you know anything that could help us?"

"Actually, I might," Maria said, suddenly more nervous than she had been seconds ago. She wrung her wrists. "The night before we found out the blood was gone, I was working here after my shift. I started a project during the day and really wanted to get it done before the morning, you know?" There she paused, frowning at a thought.

"That's when the lights went out. The blood bags were in the room connected to mine, and I heard about the clinics getting robbed on the news, so I decided to go check it out, right? I opened the door and I heard the drawer opening, but when I took a step in, the drawer was slammed shut and the person escaped through the window," she explained as briefly as she could.

"How does that help us?" Connor growled. Maria looked alarmed until M'gann threw herself in front of Connor and smiled at her apologetically.

"It helps very much because now we can get more details on the thief!" she exclaimed happily.

Wally tapped on the woman's shoulder. "Did you get any fingerprints?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, they must have been wearing gloves," Maria admitted. "But I did take a picture of the window with my phone when the lights turned back on." She reached into her back pocket and clumsily took out her smartphone, quickly tapping the screen as she pulled up her photo album. She turned the screen to show the team. The window was only a third of the way open. "I don't remember hearing it close, and it's a pretty hard window. It would have taken time to close it even a little bit, and they were escaping pretty fast."

Artemis' eyes narrowed. "A small thief?"

"Did you go to the police?" Wally asked. "I'm super glad you came to us, but have the police seen it?"

Maria shook her head, frowning. "I wasn't supposed to be there so late to begin with, and I didn't think the police would take much interest. When I showed it to my coworker, he said that there was no way a child would be stealing so much blood, let alone be able to carry so much by themselves. He thinks it's a full grown man." She turned the phone to look at the photo herself dejectedly.

"How would the thief have fit the blood bags out of a mostly closed window? Would it be able to fit?" Kaldur questioned.

Maria nodded. "Just barely. I guess they already knew how big the box was, but I've heard there have been a lot of thefts, so that isn't too surprising. It's really more wide than tall. Could have been pushed out sideways."

"So, person wears gloves, probably black clothing if they weren't seen, and small or flexible enough to fit through roughly one foot of window," Wally concluded.

Connor glared at him. "How did he turn off the lights?"

"I have no idea," Maria butt in. "But I wasn't able to turn them back on until they came on themselves."

"And has a knowledge of technology," continued Wally.

"And is a boy," Artemis added.

Maria looked amazed. "How do you know that?" she asked, but looked around bewildered when she was only met with an annoyed look from the blonde.

"I never said they were a boy!" Robin protested. It was lucky that he didn't have a beating heart, or it would have been beating much too loud for him to focus on an argument.

"You said 'he'. That's close enough," Artemis accused.

"Artemis," Kaldur warned, and Artemis snapped her mouth shut in order to turn towards him in a huff. "We settled this. Robin did not mean to say he."

She didn't say anymore, but Robin suspected that was because she was used to keeping her criticisms and suspicions to herself rather than because of Kaldur's words.

The world spun.

"Woah, Rob, you alright?" Wally spoke hurriedly, zipping over and steadying his friend with a hand. It took a moment for Robin to realise that he suddenly couldn't see past Wally's face. His far sight had gone unreasonably blurry.

"Yeah, totally," he said, brushing off Wally's concern and straightening up again from where he had wobbled. He smiled distractedly and focused his attention on Maria, attempting to focus his eyes to where he could see more than just a cream coloured blob underneath the brown blob that must have indicated her hair.

Robin distinctly felt like he could hear Kaldur and Maria briefly continue the conversation. He only recognised that she had left long after she had gone and his mind had finally caught up with him, telling him that he was suddenly staring at a blurry green blob that must have once resembled a bush.

He suddenly realised that he was alone.

Spinning around in momentary bewilderment, Robin immediately regretted the action as everything went tipping to the side. Bending over as if he were about to be sick, Robin stayed as absolutely still as possible until his head stopped throbbing. Then, he slowly straightened and carefully looked around. At first, Robin's vision started splitting and waddling awkwardly from side to side, but then it abruptly focused, revealing a little girl holding a popsicle stick near a garbage can to be staring at him in shock.

Right. Robin. Famous Boy Wonder and all that. Idol of children everywhere. She began hopping excitedly and dashed back off onto the park's grass, probably to find her parents.

It was horribly ironic how a supernatural creature meant to inflict fear into everyone's hearts was being regarded with such trust and friendliness. It made Robin want to feel comforted, but he hardly could get his mind off of _blood. _He needed _blood._

"Robin!"

Wally. Of course it was Wally. Robin turned slowly to greet his best friend, stiff with the fear that movement would cause him more sensory befuddlement. He grinned as naturally as he could. "Hey, bro!" he called as the speedster reached a halting stop. Unfortunately, Wally was not grinning back.

"Dude, why are you still here? We thought you were right behind us," the ginger said worriedly.

"I am," Robin insisted. Wally's eyebrows rose dramatically. "I just needed to check something out and think a bit."

"Think?" asked Wally.

"Well, yeah," replied Robin. "Digesting the new info and all." Before Wally could answer, he tugged on his arm. "Come on," he said. "Lets get back to the others."

He was, of course, hoping that Wally would lead him back, but then he remembered the ginger's super speed as the goggles were snapped onto Wally's face once more. "Sure, meet you there!" Wally exclaimed.

"Wait!" Robin cried as his best friend crouched to run. Wally tilted his head for Robin to continue. "Uh, could I get on your back? It's faster."

Robin was seriously digging his own grave. A grave two hundred years overdue.

"Sure, climb on," Wally agreed easily. He crouched and Robin jumped on as naturally as if they had been doing it forever, but there was a problem that Robin realised only when Wally gripped the arm around his neck. Wally froze, and Robin tensed. Even with most of the nerves on the surface of his skin frayed and dead from exposure to the sun back when he was first turned, he could still feel the heat pulsing from Wally's hand into Robin's arm. Wally was naturally a bit warmer than a normal human, but the only way he would feel almost suffocatingly hot was if Robin was ice cold.

Wally turned his head and fixed Robin with a raised eyebrow look. "Dude, is it just me or are you colder than usual?"

"Just you," Robin cackled. Wally shrugged, gripped his arm a little tighter, and raced off. Robin pressed his face into the back of Wally's neck, feeling his ears pop with the speed that they were going. He could barely hold himself back from puking as he felt the contents of his stomach get thrown around without going anywhere, and his eyes throbbed behind his eyelids.

He _needed _to feed.

Robin's throat felt like it was practically shriveling up, and he had no clue as to how he had survived the night before without drinking anything. He had been forced to drink a glass of water before he slept because Alfred knew that he didn't eat or drink during missions - maybe it had temporarily tricked him into thinking that he was full?

When Wally finally stopped, Robin wanted nothing more than to go home already. But there was work to be done. Kaldur had his fingers pressed against the communicator in his ear, and he was nodding to the person that couldn't see him. Robin frowned as he felt his knees almost give out from beneath him. He blinked, only to find his eyes burn beneath his lids. They were drying up. It probably meant that they were tinting red.

That wasn't good. Robin didn't really know what happened when his eyes went completely red, but that was only because he never remembered. It had only happened twice before, and from the satisfied feeling of being 'full' (not his stomach, his stomach was trapped in a forever equilibrium of never hungry and never full. Instead, being 'full' felt as if his very _skin _and _flesh _was practically buzzing with a warm, content feeling that Robin may have compared to booze if he had ever tasted booze while he was still alive to feel the effects) afterwards, he could guess what had happened.

"So, what's the plan?" Wally asked, but Artemis tilted her head pointedly at Kaldur. The team could only hear his side of the conversation, but that didn't reveal much because Kaldur seemed to be the one receiving orders.

"Are you certain of this?" Kaldur confirmed. "Yes, alright. We will. CC Medical Center? Will do. Goodbye, Batman."

"What'd the Bat say?" Wally pressed.

"We will perform a stake out," Kaldur replied simply.

"A stake out?" Artemis questioned. "As in, sit at a post and wait to see if anything suspicious happens?"

"It has been roughly a month and a half since the last theft. According to Batman and according to the maps, the trail of thefts has been heading east towards Metropolis. Following that trail and the requirements of being a wealthy and well connected building, the CC Medical Center is an ideal target," elaborated the leader.

Wally groaned. "And what if they don't show? We do the same thing tomorrow?"

"Apparently," Kaldur admitted.

That time, Robin groaned with his best friend.

* * *

><p>Evening had fallen, and Robin was alone with his ginger-haired speedster friend behind the Medical Center on an utterly useless mission. They were nudged between two dumpsters with nothing but the distant sound of frogs croaking from a stream somewhere nearby, though Robin reckoned that Wally couldn't hear it like he did.<p>

The silence wasn't awkward, but that was because there was no silence. The two shuffled uncomfortably on the hard pavement and the scuffing of their boots on the ground echoed in the otherwise quiet of the alley. Or, what would be quiet, if Wally hadn't insisted on complaining about the smell.

"A dumpster? Really? Why not pick somewhere else? Why couldn't we go on the roof?" Wally whined in what he thought was a whisper, but sounded to Robin more like a boom than anything.

"Because M'gann is there and she can fly," Robin hissed.

"But you're a bird!" Wally hissed back.

"And you're a runner with superspeed, who would be more useful on the ground," stated said bird. "You're also the one who didn't want to get split up."

Wally crossed his arms moodily, but he didn't have much of a rebuttal to the fact. "You didn't look too good," he muttered. "I didn't want to leave you alone."

Robin rolled his eyes, though Wally couldn't see the action behind his mask. "I'm perfectly fine," he insisted. But that was because he was staying still. He felt dizzy in a feverish way, but he knew that everything inside of him was cold. And getting colder. To top it off, he was stuck with a person who had super speed - faster than Robin even when Robin was using his vampiric abilities.

Robin may have been able to sneak away from Wally, but not while they were so close that their legs were touching and not while Wally could catch up to him before he got very far. After all, though Robin could disappear as well as any trained ninja, he still wouldn't be able to get very far away until Wally felt that Robin was gone (precisely one second) and searched every square inch for the acrobat with super speed that Robin couldn't avoid.

While a normal ill human might have been overheating, Robin felt as if he were turning to stone. Veins and arteries that had long since stopped pulsing itched with a feeling that resembled the way one might feel if they had made eye contact with Medusa. It was as if he were slowly turning to ice, but Robin knew that it was merely the ages of a dead body left in the cold catching up to him while he had no blood to breathe in the momentary illusion of life.

Wally eyed him sceptically. "No, you're not," he said.

**Team, check in, **Kaldur's voice resonated within their heads. Robin was grateful for Wally's temporary distraction. **Connor and I remain within full view of the front street.**

**The Wall-man's here, **Wally thought immediately. Before Robin could open his own mind, very reluctantly because he knew that his emotions would be more vulnerable to M'gann's reach, Wally continued. **Rob, too.**

Wally had helped Robin unintentionally, and for that the acrobat thought he could tolerate the redhead's interrogations for a little longer.

**M'gann and Artemis, on the roof.**

**Good, **Kaldur thought with relief. **Another check in twenty minutes. **The mental link went down.

Wally sighed. "This is so boring," he breathed.

Robin could only squeeze his eyes shut, however, as the voices within his head had left him with an uncomfortable muddled feeling. It was as if their voices were far away, but Robin knew that they should have been clearer than any sound that he would have been able to hear externally.

He was dying all over again. He was more than aware of that fact. Robin knew that he would begin to start feeling phantom pains. He would start to feel as if he were physically starving, even when he never had to eat to begin with. Death would come with a faster and more painful deterioration than it would for any human (when, with humans, it started right after their stomachs were empty and with vampires it started after a certain amount of time) - and Robin wanted to welcome it.

Robin didn't want to have to feed anymore.

His breath was curling and flowing downwards, like it were being poured, in front of his face as he continued to force his chest to rise and fall in Wally's company. But the night was warm. Compared to the air around him, Robin's breath wasn't too warm - it was too cold.

And Wally felt it.

"Robin," Wally squeaked. He didn't notice the way Robin's breath looked at first, but he felt it as he reached a hand to turn his best friend's face. "Oh my god, Rob-." His eyes widened and Robin could feel his heart speed up. The speedster instinctively reached a hand for the communicator in his ear.

"No," Robin breathed out as slowly as he could. "Don't tell the team."

"But-but Rob, wha-at's going on," Wally asked, thoroughly alarmed and confused as he quickly adjusted his position to kneel in front of his best friend.

God dammit.

"I'm just sick," Robin tried to say, but when he opened his eyes and was met with a field of vision filled with green, he was surprised to note that said green eyes were filled with anger.

"No!" Wally demanded, frustrated. "Don't say that!" His voice was so loud that Robin wanted to tell him to keep it down, but he felt that it took all of his energy just to keep breathing. Wally's hands moved onto his shoulders. "You're cold even through your uniform - you aren't just sick!"

"Then what am I?" Robin challenged, his voice barely audible. He was tired. He was so tired. But a jab of pain suddenly struck his head and he was snapped into alertness once more with a moan.

"You're-you're-" Wally began to stammer. "I-I don't know." The boy's hands moved in front of Robin's nose to feel his breathing. He was panicking. If Robin couldn't hear his heart beat, he could see it in his face.

Suddenly, it wasn't just hard to breathe - it was _painful. _His lungs felt as it they were being physically pushed down as he attempted to inflate them. Robin didn't know how to feel much pain anymore when he wasn't handling silver or when he wasn't being burned by fire or sunlight, but his intuition told him that his vampiric healing wasn't going to help him at that moment.

He wanted all the _pain _to _stop. _Why was he even trying to breathe? What was his gain? His head was so muffled that he didn't know and frankly, he didn't care.

He stopped breathing.

Wally felt it.

The speedster opened his mouth to scream, but all that came out was a whimper of shock and a squeak. He was shuddering and, as Robin could see with the glisten of a streetlight, he was crying.

Robin took in only one breath to speak. "I'm still here," he said. He wished he wasn't.

"How," Wally squeaked. "_How." _His voice turned raspy. "You're _not breathing, oh my god, _I'm calling the team, ohgodI'mcallingtheteam-"

"_No," _Robin growled, and the sound of it itself caused Wally to freeze. The confusion on how Robin could speak at all kept him frozen.

"What's going on?!" Wally demanded. His frustration was returning, overpowering his sadness. His tears went from tears of loss to tears of _being_ lost.

Robin narrowed his vision to a freckle on Wally's nose, fighting to keep his vision from swimming. "Blood," he forced out.

Wally stared, hand still frozen beside his communicator.

"I will die," Robin rasped, "if I don't drink blood."

Realisation crawled upon Wally's face right then. His eyes glazed over in thought, in helplessness, and in mock recognition. "You're the thief?" was all that he could get out. Robin thought that the thefts were certainly minor compared to what was happening, but Wally must have been digesting it step by step. He was only just then connecting the pieces.

Robin had thought that he would be able to survive until the mission was over. Truth be told, he probably could have - his calculations were never wrong. What he hadn't calculated, however, was experience. He never had reason to starve himself before. He didn't know that by the time the mission was over, he would have no energy left to feed. But with all the human food and drinks he was forced to consume to appear normal on a daily basis, he had tricked himself into forgetting what he really needed. The foods and drinks only masked his real hunger and, inevitably, confused his own mind into rethinking his health. He had been living a lie.

He still was.

"But, _why-" _Wally stressed. Same old Wally, never believing in what he couldn't identify as science.

But why could Robin smell blood? Wally winced and readjusted his position, but Robin's mind was already off of the conversation. He could smell _blood._

It didn't take a genius to know that Robin wasn't the one bleeding.

"Are you bleeding?" he croaked. Wally didn't nod, but his eyes flickered down to his knees, where the spandex had ripped earlier when he tripped and skid his knees against the pavement. The frantic shuffling on the hard street gravel to get to Robin had caused his scrapes to open.

Robin blinked frantically as his eyes became drier. "I can smell it," he said, distractedly.

Wally wasn't comprehending.

"I need to _drink," _Robin ground out, "_blood."_

And finally, full understanding dawned. But Wally was denying it. His eyes flickered uncertainly, unable to make contact with Robin's mask.

However, the artery in Wally's neck was pulsing, and Robin's new attention span was zeroed in on that. He could _hear _the blood rushing, shoving against the walls of the organ as if desperate to escape-

Wally saw Robin's eyes on his neck.

"Can-are-can-can you-would-" the speedster was trying to ask a question, but his mind was running through so many other thoughts that he couldn't find a way to word his sentence. "Would-d I tu-urn into a… a gh-oul if-" he stammered uncertainly, his body temperature rising in stress.

But Robin knew what he was asking, and he couldn't believe it. For a second, his own confusion overcame his hunger, and he gaped.

The second his mouth opened, his teeth extended, drawn to the smell of the blood swelling to the surface of Wally's knees. Wally's heart rate increased dramatically at the sight, to the point that it hammered against his chest and he fell onto his back with a terrified pant.

"No," Robin hissed, finding it harder to talk with fangs protruding from his mouth, but with his overpowering _thirst _he had no self control to retract them. "Only if…," he paused for a second to build up the energy to wheeze out the end of his thought, "...use venom."

But Robin didn't want to scare his best friend. He didn't want to risk the life of Wally, one of the people he had hid himself from to protect against the real dangers of the supernatural world. He backed himself up against the wall behind him and turned his face towards the dumpster, willing the smell of garbage to block out the smell of iron.

He would rather _truly _die.

Robin could hear the gravel beneath Wally's position shift, and he was absolutely certain that Wally was about to race out of that alleyway and never return. He would leave Robin to die. _Finally _die. Robin could finally die, and he wouldn't be afraid of it like he had for two hundred years. At that moment, he was no longer a vampire with the fear of nonexistence.

But a second later, Robin could hear only the roar of blood pumping through arteries as loudly as if it were a waterfall beneath his lips. He wrapped his fingers around the narrow shoulder bones of whoever in the hell had thrown themselves in front of him, _what_ever the hell was in front of him. His fangs brushed against where he instinctively knew would perfectly hit his target. And sunk.

It was the most wonderful of feelings.

Years Robin had gone without fresh blood from a human body because of the fear of exposure, especially in a city owned by Batman and a country flooded with superheroes. But blood bags held none of the satisfaction of sinking fangs into _living, breathing _flesh. Unburying cold, cold blood of differing types from the cold, hard ground of the forest wasn't nearly appealing. Blood was supposed to be warm and smooth, not cold and sluggish and containing the slightest taste of plastic from their containment.

The blood that pooled onto Robin's tongue, that brushed against the walls of his throat, was warm and velvety and he _never wanted to stop._

Until he heard a moan.

Whether it was a moan of discomfort, of exhaustion, of anything else, Robin did not know. But he did know that he recognised that voice.

Without a second thought, Robin retracted his fangs. His head was clear and his limbs were no longer shaking with malnutrition. He backed up and tripped in alarm, falling onto his back.

Wally fell ontop of him.

The sounds of the night rushed to greet Robin. It was as if he had just groggily awoken early in the morning for school, unaware of his surroundings, and plunged into a bath of cold water. Robin was refreshed, but he did not know of the price.

Robin looked down at his best friend. Had he sucked too much blood? Had he accidentally discharged the small amount of venom tucked in his fangs that was meant to turn a human into either a vampire or a ghoul?

Why? Why did Wally- why?

Robin whipped off his mask, not caring of the consequences, only caring that the thin and slightly blurring film in front of his eyes was gone so that he could fully and completely take in the state of his friend. He had to be _sure _of the damage that he had caused.

But seconds later, there was another moan and glazed eyes were revealed. Emerald swam around for a moment until they found blue and amazingly, despite it all, a shaky smile crawled its way onto its owner's face.

"Wally?" Dick whispered.

"I can't let you starve to death," Wally mumbled, tired but determined to elaborate his actions.

"Why…?"

"You're my friend," explained Wally. As if to emphasise, his arms found their way to Dick's shoulders as they both lay sprawled on the gravel. His fingers gripped the pale bones. "You're...still my...friend. I'm guessing you...you...were a vampy since I met...and...wow this is...really vivid dream…" Wally's lopsided grin widened. "If you were really a...that would be weird...kinda makes sense...wonder...cool dream...still do it if weren't…"

Taking in Wally's grin, Dick smiled. He smiled despite his feelings moments before, and he smiled because Wally smiled. Wally thought it was all a dream. But no matter if it were simply a dream in his head, all that Wally had felt while performing his actions had been real. All the fear.

And Wally was still, miraculously, there. He hadn't run away. He had called Dick, a _vampire, _his friend.

"Vampire, not vampy," Dick corrected softly. "Vampy isn't a very affectionate pet name."

Wally mumbled something, chuckled something, but his English had become so scrambled that Dick couldn't make sense of it at all. It was hardly seconds more before he was fast asleep, his chest rising and falling comfortingly against Dick's own, still, one.

The acrobat's vision blurred. But he wasn't hungry.

Dick just never knew that even vampires could cry.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I truly did not think that I would start, let alone finish, this story. It was all because of a dream and a poll, after all.**

**I tried not to make it...too melo-dramatic. I think I failed?**

**This was supposed to be a short multi-chapter, but I decided that doing so would only make it feel choppy. A very brief epilogue will be posted later.**

**Right now, I'm insanely dizzy and feel drugged or something because, thanks to my lack of a sweet tooth, I collapsed earlier from dangerously low blood sugar. I was way too determined to finish this, though. Ow, my head.**

**I need to study for finals in a couple days, too. I haven't so much as started. _I am going to die._**

**In other news, though, please review and tell me what you thought of the story! It would be _so _appreciated, considering that this is the first supernatural thing I've ever written, and I did write and edit half of it with a spinning and unfocused head. Did you like it? Hate it? Want me to write more? Drop a review and let me know!**

**Have a nice day!**


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